bitcoin

Just six years ago, the domains of the world’s largest online poker platforms, Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Cereus were seized by the United States government for bank fraud and money laundering. The collapse of the premier online cardrooms spelled what appeared to be — at first glance — a kiss of death.

Yet, there is a new breath of life for online gambling. The growing use and adoption of cryptocurrencies represent a boon for online gambling, which is largely prohibited in the United States. The global online gambling market had an estimated value of $44.16 billion in 2016 with potential to grow to $81.71 billion by 2022, according to Berkshire Hathaway’s BusinessWire.

Online betting is illegal in the United States, “for the most part, under broad interpretations of both state and multiple federal laws,” according to a legal source referenced by Bloomberg Law in January 2018. In Washington state, playing online poker is even considered a felony. Additionally, in the United States, the use of cryptocurrencies to wager money in foreign online gambling platforms is likewise illegal. While online gambling is largely illegal for those in the United States, most major operators of online gambling platforms legally establish their operations in countries with more lenient regulations and laws.

Throughout the past year, cryptocurrencies have captured the curiosity and fascination of millions around the world, with tokens such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin all seeing growth rates of at least 10,000 percent in the last year. Additionally, the exchange and use of cryptocurrencies is completely legal in the United States. Furthermore, the blockchain technology underlying cryptocurrencies has fundamentally changed online gambling by providing three key advantages: privacy, transparency, and instantaneous transactions.

First, cryptocurrencies theoretically reduce the risk of identifying information being exposed, as the only information posted on the blockchain is the user’s cryptographically transformed address. Anonymity is an especially important reason why online sports betting increasingly use cryptocurrencies.

Second, gamblers may feel more confident about the integrity and transparency of their transactions. Every transaction using Bitcoin or Ethereum is published on the cryptocurrency’s blockchain. As a result, it is unduly impractical — if not impossible — to create fraudulent transactions on the blockchain, as all of the transactions before the theoretical fraudulent transaction must also be edited.

Finally, instant withdrawals and deposits appeal to operators of online gambling platforms. Once a wager is set, the website instantly pays out winnings or takes away losses from one’s cryptocurrency wallet. There is no need for a bank or financial services middleman, such as PayPal, to facilitate transactions.

As a result, online gambling platforms, ranging from poker to dice, have largely adopted cryptocurrencies.

The largest cryptocurrency dice game website, Primedice, has had a total of 2,229,232 Bitcoin wagered since its inception in May 2013. According to the website Coinmarketcap, Bitcoin’s value has jumped from $111.25 on May 2013, to a staggering $10,214 at the time of writing in January 2018. Although it is impractical to convert the amount of Bitcoin wagered on Primedice into US dollars, given the currency’s extreme price fluctuations, it is certain that some hundreds of millions of dollars have been processed on Primedice through the use of Bitcoin.

With all of these factors in mind, it may seem that cryptocurrencies are changing online gambling into a industry with incredible growth potential. However, that is not the case, as obstacles in the cryptocurrency market will likely stall growth in online gambling.

For one, regulation always looms in the background. This is due to the high potential for criminals to exploit cryptocurrencies and the anonymity they provide to commit illegal acts, such as money laundering and drug dealing. This has been a problem since the inception of cryptocurrencies, such as the case of the Silk Road drug trafficking network, which was shutdown by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2013. Additionally, there is the possibility that countries, such as the United States, with explicit laws against online gambling will regulate or restrict access to foreign gambling platforms.

Further, the difficulty of regulating cryptocurrency exchanges has caused many issues for governments. The use of a cryptocurrency exchange opens up the possibility of security breaches or abuse. When Bitcoin was first introduced, the world’s then-largest exchange, Mt. Gox, went insolvent due to the theft of approximately 850,000 Bitcoin, much of which has never been recovered. Internationally, some nations, such as China and South Korea, have declared intentions of regulating cryptocurrencies and gambling websites. In particular, China has banned an absolutely essential part of Ethereum, effectively spelling doom for the cryptocurrency.

Most importantly, cryptocurrencies lack stable, intrinsic value. The most common cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, are all generated by computers solving mathematical problems. They do not hold any intrinsic value and unlike legal tender, are not backed by any government. The price volatility of cryptocurrencies is also a significant problem for gamblers. Just a month after reaching a peak price of $19,282.73 in mid-December 2017, Bitcoin’s value has fallen 48% at the time of writing in January 2018. Volatility can cause gamblers to lose the winnings that they made, due to reasons entirely out of their control. Further, high levels of volatility erode trust in the cryptocurrencies’ use as financial instruments.

In a short span of time, cryptocurrencies have rapidly changed the face of online gambling, an industry that has long been riddled with legal complications and security concerns. With the use of cryptocurrencies, online gambling platforms have seen higher levels of transparency, integrity and faster transaction speed. However, cryptocurrencies are not a cure-all, as they are suspect to the constant specter of unrestrained price volatility and government regulations.

Online gambling may be going all-in on cryptocurrencies, but cryptocurrencies are by no means its savior.

Over the past six years, the popular opinion of Bitcoin has changed dramatically. It was at first an obscure, underground cryptocurrency that in time became known for facilitating anonymous illegal transactions on the Dark Web. Recently, however, Bitcoin has attracted public attention and garnered a following of cultish supporters.

The cryptocurrency first achieved a media following after its rapid 658% appreciation over the course of 2013, with one bitcoin equaling $1,145 at its peak in November 2013. Although the currency has depreciated since then, the most novel facet of Bitcoin is the underlying structural protocol that allows the currency to exist without fraud: the blockchain. Start-ups and venture capital firms are realizing the huge potential the technology has in revolutionizing industries, with hopes that the blockchain will usher in a new technological paradigm.

The Blockchain

The blockchain is a distributed public ledger of transactions created by grouping individual transactions into a transaction “block” and then appending these blocks onto a “chain,” which is an encrypted, cumulative record of every transaction. This affords Bitcoin three significant advantages: lower fees, increased privacy and decreased regulation.

The fees are reduced because there is no need to pay a central institution for processing and recording the transaction. The only people gaining compensation are those who connect their computers to the network, and this amounts to a very small amount for the parties involved. The transactions are also completed via anonymous pins, meaning that users are not required to trust anyone with their personal information, and the encryption of the ledger further protects against any form of fraud or alteration of past transactions. Transactions are processed by every node on the network, which means that tampering from any single node or group of nodes is impossible, thereby allowing the currency to exist without regulation.

As a result, the role of prevailing institutions in guaranteeing ownership, executing transactions, and enforcing contracts is obviated by this emerging ledger-based system. These advantages alone make the blockchain protocol enticing for companies and investors. Developers at the moment are racing to conceive of new applications, as start-ups ahead of the curve utilizing the technology hope to gain traction.

Hitting the main stage

But it is not merely startups that have been intrigued by the blockchain model – well-established businesses have also caught on to the potential of the blockchain. In October 2015, Nasdaq introduced “Nasdaq Linq,” which the company bills as a blockchain-based platform for their Private Market division. The service will use the blockchain “to facilitate the issuance, cataloging and recording of transfers of shares,” and will be the first service of its kind. In the years to come, the blockchain will likely see increased use in the financial services market because it reduces the demand for human laborers, enabling institutions to save huge amounts of money. A Santander report cited that a thorough implementation of the blockchain could reduce costs by up to $20 billion, and a 2015 Goldman Sachs report concurred that blockchains can potentially “make interactions quicker, less-expensive and safer.”

The venture capital world has also caught wind of this new generation of blockchain companies and are investing heavily. Blockchain Capital, for instance, was founded in 2013 with the express purpose of supporting blockchain start-ups that “create new markets and disrupt legacy industries”. Over the past three years, the firm has invested in thirty-seven of such companies and will continue to do so after their successful $7 million fund raising campaign in 2015. Not just niche funds are investing heavily in blockchain, however. Companies such as Bain Capital, Deloitte, and Citi Ventures have been huge contributors to fostering the industry. In fact, as of late 2015, over $1 billion has been invested in Bitcoin-related companies, which characterizes the growing importance and popularity of the blockchain as a technology.

But the use of blockchains has not been confined to the financial world as a mechanism for facilitating transactions. Storj, which is currently undergoing a second round of testing, uses the blockchain as a means of revolutionizing cloud storage, an arena currently dominated by giants like Dropbox and Google. Their innovations allow users to circumvent the need for a centralized third party data provider, which eliminates possible server stress and downtime and also, through encryption, increases security. Storj would then be not only faster than a traditional centralized cloud storage option, but also 10-100x cheaper, according to the company’s expectations.

The company makes use of blockchain protocol in its distribution of its own cryptocurrency, Storjcoin X (SJCX). After converting from any one cryptocurrency to Storjcoin X, users can use the currency to purchase more storage. Alternatively, users can also rent out their extra hard drive space to other anonymous, encrypted users in return for Storjcoin X. The currency operates on the same protocol as Bitcoin, but the creators feared Bitcoin’s notorious volatility and desired supply-control to meet changing levels of demand for storage. This is a growing trend for some start-ups and represents a new frontier on how users interact with companies.

Another start-up, Wave, attempts to utilize the blockchain in order to address longstanding issues surrounding international trade. Currently, bills of lading are exchanged through primarily physical means, which exposes the process to fraud, counterfeiting and delays. Such delays are often due to banking, insurance and postal procedures which may take longer than actual shipping times. A blockchain-based system would allow for direct communication between parties on the supply chain and eliminate mistrust between parties given the blockchain’s guaranteed proof of ownership. The barriers to the full, global integration of such a system may be prohibitive, but the current flaws and inefficiencies epitomize why new technologies – such as blockchains – are valuable.

A Revolution?

The benefits and potential applications of blockchain technology are clear, and the increasing media attention that the technology has received is certainly well-deserved. Nonetheless, blockchain technology faces several significant challenges going forward.

For blockchain technology to succeed on the grand scale that investors and entrepreneurs propose, acceptance by entire industries will be crucial. Not only does widespread implementation improve the speed and security of the technology, but is also simply necessary in some cases. For instance, if Wave is to succeed in transitioning their industry to the blockchain such that every transaction in the industry is processed on one ledger, each and every party must buy in. Such a revolutionary development in the industry therefore faces large network externalities.

The potential future ubiquity of the blockchain also introduces a cultural conflict between the two communities with the most at stake. On one hand, established businesses are just beginning to recognize the broad applications of blockchain technology and its effects on efficiency and security. On the other hand, there is a contingent of the strong, tight-knit blockchain developers who see the blockchain as more than just a tool for industry. They see the technology as the keystone of a new, decentralized economy, which must necessarily bypass some major institutions. How this conflict plays out remains to be seen, but compromises will need to be made on both sides. In all likelihood, both parties will come to see each other as tools for propelling their interests.

Although full-scale usage of the technology is still years away, some challenges are already being suggested. Securities and Exchange Commissioner Kara Stein in November of 2015 already began to hint at the prospect of regulation should the blockchain be integrated into the financial world. She remarked that “regulators need to be in a position to lead” in order to respond “quickly to potential weaknesses,” though she expressed an overall cautious optimism for the technology.

These potential weaknesses are certainly present, but the benefits of the blockchain have already been demonstrated by test-trial of Bitcoin. Already today, finance, world trade, ecommerce, and online business models have felt the impact of blockchain. Just precisely how much blockchain technology can change our world remains to be seen, but the creativity and innovation in prior blockchain projects promise a great deal of promise.

On Jan. 16, the Sacramento Kings announced that they would become the first NBA franchise to accept bitcoins. Starting March 1, fans will be able to buy tickets and merchandise in exchange for the virtual currency. The team, stationed in the capital of California, is no stranger to using new technology within their business. One of their recent marketing strategies uses Google Glass to give fans the vantage point of their favorite player during a dunk or defensive set. They have also utilized the Google technology to assist the coaching staff during games.

However, if successful, their acceptance of bitcoin may have the biggest implications for the rest of league and the sports world.

Launched in 2009, bitcoin is a virtual currency that allows for direct transactions between consumers and merchants without the use of banks. It allows for an anonymous and untraceable purchase between two parties. Currently, there are three ways to acquire bitcoins: through a bitcoin virtual marketplace, mobile transfers and mining. In a bitcoin marketplace, users can purchase bitcoins in exchange for different currencies. The market price for one bitcoin on Feb. 28 was $572.05. The public also acquire bitcoins through mobile apps that allow for the transfer the currency. Lastly, people can acquire the currency by mining which involves using software to generate new bitcoins.

Like any business decision, accepting the bitcoin comes with gains and risks. The Kings’ ownership changed a year ago to prevent the relocation of the franchise. With new management, the timing is perfect for the Kings to introduce new technology and practices within their business.

The Kings hope that the introduction of the bitcoin will make transactions more convenient for NBA fans. Utilizing bitcoin will make allow fans take advantage of the currency’s anonymous and unregulated transactions thus allowing them to leave their wallets at home. Bitcoins will also allow fans to purchase merchandise without waiting for the currency to be assessable. Unlike banks, bitcoin transactions do not have waiting periods around weekends or holidays. Therefore, transactions will be able to be processed during days that banks when banks are closed.

There are also several disadvantages to the accepting bitcoin. Bitcoin have been known to be volatile with constantly fluctuating exchange rates. If the value of the bitcoin were to plummet, the Kings franchise could be at risk to lose money. There are further risks regarding the inflation rates of bitcoin. The most recent December consumer price index stated that inflation was at 1.3 percent while bitcoin is at a 98 percent deflation rate. Essentially, the bitcoin currency is declining in value against the dollar. Furthermore, by nature of the currency, the rate of new bitcoin generation is slowing over time which is predicted to further deflate the value of bitcoins. Although these risks have not detoured proponents of the currency, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has been lobbying for a ban on bitcoins.

From comparing the potential gains with very real risks, bitcoin does not seem like a secure decision for the Kings. While intended to increase the ease of transactions, the average basketball fan will most likely continue to use cash, debit or credit cards. While, bitcoin’s recent rise in popularity makes the decision worthwhile, I believe that the venture will not be as successful as expected.

Ultimately, it is hard to believe that bitcoin will replace the current prominent forms of payment. Bitcoin does not offer additional transactional convenience except to the select few users of bitcoin. For the Kings, bitcoin seems to be a high-risk, low-reward decision considering the immense fluctuations in value. However, if the acceptance of bitcoins proves to generate greater revenues, the Kings will be commended as innovative early adopters in the NBA causing other teams to adopt similar policies.